


Our Little Something: A Story of the One Year War

by ThatGirlInTheQubeley



Category: Gundam & Related Fandoms, Gundam ZZ, Universal Century Gundam, Zeta Gundam
Genre: F/F, Femslash, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-24
Updated: 2015-04-24
Packaged: 2018-03-25 11:43:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3809110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatGirlInTheQubeley/pseuds/ThatGirlInTheQubeley
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AEUG Rookie Christine Summers meets Axis Zeon Ace Mira Katalina and her life changes forever.<br/>Basically just a little First Neo Zeon War story about GM Nemo's and Kampfers and an ice cave and a party and two girls on opposite sides of the war who fall in love :3</p>
            </blockquote>





	Our Little Something: A Story of the One Year War

The first time I met Mira Katalina, I was a different woman entirely than I would be the second time I met her. The first time I met her was during the Gryps Conflict, at an official party that was planned to facilitate a potential treaty between Axis Zeon and the AEUG. I was twenty one, but emotionally I was barely seventeen. I was closeted and dating a man named Bruno who I knew I couldn’t love, but it didn’t matter because he didn’t love me and didn’t want to. I had been EFF for a year before the Federation fell to Titans and I met Quattro Bajeena and joined AEUG. I was irreconcilably shy and unusually terrified of everything. I was standing in a corner, nursing a drink and feeling irreconcilably out of place in my ball gown and heels when Mira walked into the room. She was pale and tall and magnificent. What looked like diamonds were scattered almost haphazardly in her cropped ebony hair and she wore a low-cut sapphire dress that seemed to sparkle in the right light. There was a smaller girl on her arm with long red hair and a dress the color of night. The girl on her’s arm looked a lot like me, if I were actually beautiful and had any sort of confidence. I couldn’t help but stare at them both, wanting to be them and wanting them both desperately. The sparkling woman and her companion completely dripped in the self-confidence I wished I could have - confidence in their appearance, confidence in their place there, confidence in their sexuality (for as I could tell from the way she looked at the girl who looked a little like me, she was her girlfriend), confidence in every way.  
“Lieutenant Mira Katalina and her companion, Elspeth Devan,” the man who had been announcing important arrivals all night, his voice booming throughout the hall as all eyes turned towards Mira and Elspeth. Mira wore the insignia of Axis Zeon, and given that she was important enough to warrant an official introduction, she must be a mobile suit pilot. I was a mobile suit pilot too, but not an important one. I was part of the endless rabble that piloted GM Nemos. I watched Mira as she floated from dignitary to dignitary, officer to officer, talking animatedly to all of them. I sat there, drinking, and wishing she’d talk to me, but knowing she wouldn’t, when I was broken out of my distraction by someone talking to me.  
“I’m Mira,” she said as I looked up confusedly. Elspeth wasn’t with her. Glancing around, I saw her talking to another Axis officer.  
“C-C-Christine,” I stammered, “Christine Summers.”  
She was talking to me and I couldn’t figure out why she’d want to.  
“You’re AEUG, right?” she said.  
I nodded.  
“How did you know?” I asked.  
“I talked to your friend, Bruno,” she said.  
“H-he’s my boyfriend,” I said.  
God I’m the worst at talking to people.  
“He seems like an asshole,” she said, then, “Want to dance?”  
“S-sure,” I said, standing up as she took my hand and swept me onto the dance floor.  
“Why do you think Bruno’s an asshole?” I asked as we danced.  
“You’re obviously not really attracted to him or you’d be with him right now instead of me,” Mira said, “And it’s easy to tell that he knows that, but he’s still dating you anyway. Why is that? Do you know, Miss Christine Summers?”  
“I-i don’t really know,” I said, “Sometimes he says he loves me.”  
“But you know he doesn’t,” Mira said, “I know he doesn’t and I just met him, and I know you’re smart enough to know it too. He is your boyfriend.”  
“I know he doesn’t love me,” I said, “But he’s nice to me.”  
“Do you like it when he fucks you?” she said, “I can tell you don’t.”  
“Okay, it’s awful,” I said, confusedly, “But how could you know that?”  
“You’re gay,” she said, “And you’re dating a man. Obviously it’s awful. I’ve been there, a long time ago.”  
“I’m not gay,” I said indignantly, “I’m dating Bruno.”  
“I’ve seen the way you look at me and every other woman in this room, Miss Christine Summers,” she said, “And I’ve seen the way you don’t look at any of the men in this room, even your dear Bruno.”  
“Okay, you’re right,” I said.  
“I’m always right about people,” she said, “It’s a talent of mine. You’re also a mobile suit pilot, aren’t you?”  
“Yes, and again, how do you know that?” I said.  
“I know it from the way your hands feel,” she said, “A mobile suit pilot develops a very specific set of calluses on her hands that are unmistakable.”  
“What else can you tell me about myself?” I asked. I was testing her now.  
“I can tell from the way you smell that you’re very unsure of yourself in every way,” she said, “Nervous people exude a very specific set of pheromones. I can tell from your make-up and the way you walk in heels that you aren’t used to large social events, which means that you’re from a lower class background and that you aren’t very high ranking if you even are an officer, which I’m guessing you aren’t, but that’s just my speculation. You pilot either a Hi-Zack or a GM Nemo, because that’s what every non-officer in the AEUG pilots now. The way you walk shows me that you’re from Earth, because Spacenoids develop a very specific gait from existing in low-G, and by your accent you’re from Colorado, or somewhere nearby. Your parents are farmers, which I know because you grew up poor in Colorado. From the way you were holding your drink I can tell you don’t drink often, and from the small sips I saw you take, you rarely drink to excess. I can tell from the dilation of your pupils that me doing this is very arousing for you, and I can tell from that thing you’re doing with the corners of your mouth that you want to kiss me right now.”  
“You’re amazing, Miss Mira Katalina,” I said, “All of that was right.”  
The room felt like it was getting incredibly warm and I realized I was bright red.  
“I try,” she said, “And if you want to kiss me, now would be the best time. Your Bruno is very distracted by the buffet and probably will be for quite some time, and my Elspeth doesn’t mind me kissing girls who aren’t her.”  
“Are you sure it’s alright?” I said.  
She answered me with a kiss. It was short and sweet and innocent, but for the first time in my life, kissing someone actually felt right and magical, and in that moment for the first time I was actually okay with the fact that I’m a lesbian instead of scared of the idea of it like I normally am and if I’d known that kissing a girl was all it would take to make me okay with being gay I would have done it years ago.  
It felt like the kiss lasted forever, but in all actuality it was less than five seconds.  
“I have to go,” she said, “Meeting you was wonderful, Miss Christine Summers.”  
Was she blushing?  
“I emjoyed meeting you, Miss Mira Catalina,” I said, actually feeling confident for the first time ever as Mira dashed away.

“You kissed a girl,” Bruno said when he came to the door of my room a few hours after the party ended.  
“I did,” I said.  
“Why?” he asked.  
“Because I liked her,” I said.  
“Did you get her number?” he asked, “We could fuck her together.”  
“You’re disgusting,” I said.  
“Did you not like kissing her?” he asked.  
“I liked kissing her,” I said, “But I don’t like kissing you. I don’t like fucking you, and I don’t like dating you.”  
“What?” Bruno asked, confused.  
“I’m a lesbian, Bruno,” I said, and that was the first time I’d actually said it out loud. It felt good.  
“What?” Bruno said, almost angrily.  
“We’re breaking up,” I said, “I can’t date you any more.”  
Bruno stepped into my room and came closer to where I was sitting on the bed. I grabbed the pistol from my desk and pointed it at him.  
“There’s two ways we can do this, Bruno,” I said, “Either you can leave and not talk to me anymore, or I can shoot you and a medic can take you out of my room.”  
The one thing Mira hadn’t figured out about me was the fact that Bruno was violent. He raised his hand and came closer to my bed and I shot him in the knee. He started to get up and I shot him in the other knee.  
“I need a medic in here,” I said absently, pressing the call button on my nightstand, “My now ex-boyfriend slipped and fell leaving my room and somehow a gun went off and shot him in the legs.”

I came out to my entire unit the next day, after explaining what happened with Bruno. He got a demotion for it, which was pretty beautiful. Every body talked about it, so within a couple of days, the entire AEUG knew about me being gay, and I didn’t care. I finally felt actually alive. I started seeing a girl from the 29th. Haman Karn declared war on the AEUG and Axis Zeon started calling themselves Neo Zeon. We beat the Titans and Neo Zeon became our top priority. I dated a few girls, and a year and a half passed. My unit was assigned to the Lemarchand Sector. We orbited XB-724, an Earth-like planet in the center of the sector, and the surface was where we fought the Zeon hardest.  
The day that I met Mira Katalina for the second time, we attacked a Neo Zeon base in a part of XB-724 that was similar to the Antarctic areas of Earth. Our forces were depleted, down to me and four other mobile suit pilots. Lieutenant Kimura, our leader and the only officer in our group piloted a Gundam Mk. II. I was still in a GM Nemo. I’d been offered an upgrade, but I’d come to love my Nemo. I’d had upgrades attached to it, rather than replacing my mobile suit entirely. Reynolds piloted a Hi-Zack and offered fire support. Wheeler was in an out-dated GM that had been in use since the One Year War, and was a sniper. Koizumi was in Gouf that had been salvaged when Zeon fell after the War, and she was our heavy hitter. None of us were Newtypes. We had been waiting for reinforcements for eight months. The situation was dire.  
From our intel, however, the Zeon weren’t faring much better than we were. They had two old-style Zaku IIs, two Hi-Zacks, one Geara Zulu, and a Kampfer, heavily modified and painted red and yellow. Before coming to XB-724, none of us had seen a Kampfer and only even knew of it as a little-used relic of the One Year War. The Kampfer was their biggest threat by a mile. Its pilot had taken out several of our squad members almost single-handedly, highly mobile and able to switch between its wide array of weapons quickly. From what we knew, none of them were Newtypes.  
Visibility was bad in the snow, and we had to get far closer than we’d like to even see their base.  
“Something’s moving out there,” Kimura said, pointing at the base, “I think they’ve spotted us.”  
Wheeler dropped onto one knee and lifted the scope of his sniper rifle to his GM’s head cameras.  
“Looks like a couple of Hi-Zacks and one, maybe two Zakus, coming towards us,” Wheeler said.  
“Wheeler, stay here and try to keep them off us,” Kimura said, “Reynolds, Koizumi, come with me. Summers, circle around and see if you can help us flank them. Let’s move out.”  
Readying my beam rifle, I lifted off, boosting ahead of them and around the side, heading towards the back of the base. As we were advancing, I heard Wheeler’s sniper rifle go off.  
“Got one of the Zakus,” he said, then his gun went off again.  
“And now the other one’s down,” he said.  
In the distance I saw Koizumi’s beam saber ignite and heard machine gun fire.  
“Kimura, you’ve got the Geara Zulu coming up on you,” Wheeler said.  
I continued moving forward, and I saw a flash of red in one of my side cameras.  
“I think I’ve sighted the Kampfer,” I said, “So watch out for that.”  
The flash of red circled around me and suddenly the Kampfer was in front of me. It fired its shotgun at me, which I dodged easily, reaching for my beam saber. The Kampfer’s saber ignited as mine did, its shotgun gone almost instantly, and I charged.  
“I’m engaging the Kampfer,” I shouted, swinging my beam saber at it, being met by its beam saber, “I could use some back-up.”  
“We’ve got everything else on us Summers,” Kimura said, “We’ll send Koizumi around but it’s a risk.”  
“I’ll hold it off til you guys are in a better position,” I said, barely dodging a slash from the Kampfer.  
“One of the Hi-Zacks is down and we’re pressing towards you,” Kimura said, “Hold your position and we ought to be there soon.”  
I swung at the Kampfer and it easily blocked my saber, and its head vulcans went off, slamming against my armor. I fired my vulcans, meeting the Kampfer’s hail of bullets with my own, pressing with my saber, looking for an opening, but she dodged and blocked almost effortlessly. I heard an explosion in the distance.  
“Wheeler, report!” Kimura said, “Do you read?”  
No answer.  
“Report!” Kimura shouted.  
No answer, and then a sniper rifle went off and Reynolds exploded.  
“We’ve got a sniper!” Kimura shouted, “Summers, we’ll be with you when we can, but if we don’t find that sniper, we’re as good as dead.”  
I drew my machine gun with my free hand as the Kampfer drew its shotgun. It circled around me and I spun to meet each slash from its beam saber as I fired and it fired. The Kampfer dodged easily, but my Nemo was less mobile and my lower leg took the shotgun blast.  
“Kimura’s down!” Koizumi shouted, “I could use a little help here Summers. I’ve got a Hi-Zack on me and the sniper’s still out there, I guess in the Geara Zulu!”  
“The Kampfer’s on me and I’m trying as hard as I can not to die right now!” I shouted back to her.  
The Kampfer fired at me again and I met its shotgun with my beam saber, cleaving it in half the Kampfer’s saber cleaving through my comm antenna. I was no longer in communication with my team, it was just me and Koizumi left, with at least three Neo Zeon mobile suits on us.  
Long story short, we were kind of screwed. The Kampfer jetted away from me, towards where I assumed Koizumi was fighting, and I followed. I met up with Koizumi as her heat saber cleaved a Gear Zulu and a Hi-Zack in half in a single swing. I couldn’t warn her about the Kampfer, which was kind of a really big problem, but then she saw it, meeting its saber with hers. I went after the Kampfer with my saber, but it quickly raised another saber to block mine. A lucky strike from my saber slashed off the Kampfer’s legs but its jets kept it in the air. Koizumi had both of the Kampfer’s sabers locked with hers and as I went in for what should have been the kill, something strange happened. The Kampfer moved faster than should have been possible to block my saber as its pauldrons slid open and dozens of funnels flew out, pincushioning Koizumi with beams.  
Whoever piloted the Kampfer, they were a Newtype and had been keeping it a secret, as a sort of hidden weapon. The Kampfer and I flew away, both of us engaging in beam saber combat as Koizumi’s Gouf exploded. Kampfer’s funnels turned on me and began firing volley after volley of lasers. I desperately threw up my beam saber to block the beams, and Kampfer took the opportunity to remove my Nemo’s right leg and what remained of its left leg. It flew away from me, leaving its funnels on me as I desperately tried to chase it. I cut down Kampfer’s funnels with a hail of machine gun fire and pushed my Nemo’s boosters to its limit, chasing the Kampfer. It dove into a hole in the ground and I was right on its tail. We were in a tunnel of ice, descending rapidly into the ground. I dropped my now-empty machine gun and drew my beam rifle and started at it as it fired it released more funnels. A shot from my beam rifle took out Kampfer’s head and a second shot took out its left arm. Even if its pilot was a Newtype, they have to be able to see to hit me.  
Or at least I hope that’s how Newtypes work.  
We flew into a large icy cavern as I desperately dodge shots from Kampfer’s funnels. This cave felt like the bottom. There were vents of heat rising from holes in the ground. Parts of the ice were melted into what looked like underground springs. I fired my beam rife again, striking Kampfer through the middle. It’s pilot ejected from the basically cored mobile suit, its funnels going off for the last time, pinpricking my Nemo as I ejected, landing in the hot water as both mobile suits exploded, rocks and shards of ice falling from the ceiling and blocking the only exit from the cave.  
I drew my pistol, searching for Kampfer’s pilot. A gunshot went off from next to a burning piece of the wreckage of my Nemo. I fired, and Kampfer’s pilot dodged behind the rubble, then leaned out and fired again, missing me. I fired, then ducked beneath the ledge of the spring, taking cover. We exchanged several more shots, and then I went to fire again and was met by a click. There wasn’t a gunshot from their direction, so I hoped that we had both run out of ammo at the same time. I climbed out of the spring, holding up my hands above my head and dropping my gun, and Kampfer’s pilot stepped out from behind the wreckage their hands in the air as well.  
“It seems we’re both unarmed now,” Kampfer’s pilot said. I had expected a man, but instead there was a woman’s voice.  
“We are,” I said, walking cautiously towards her.  
“You’re a Newtype,” I said, “I wasn’t expecting that.”  
“I wasn’t expecting you to actually be as good of a pilot as you are,” she said.  
“We both underestimated each other,” I said.  
“That’s normally a fatal mistake,” she said.  
“I know,” I answered. We were only a couple of feet away from each other now.  
“I’m going to take off my helmet now,” she said, “And I want you to do the same thing. I want to see the face of the woman who bested me.”  
We took off our helmets at the same time, and I saw the surprised face of Mira Catalina.  
“You’re a good kisser, by the way,” she said, regaining her composure almost immediately.  
“Miss Mira Catalina,” I said, unable to hide my surprise.  
“Just call me Mira,” she said, “And I’ll call you Christine.”  
“Very informal,” I said, “I like it.”  
“I never expected I’d die with you,” she said.  
“Die?” I asked.  
“Christine, we’re several miles underground and both of our squads are destroyed,” she said, “We haven’t received reinforcements in months, and from what I saw of your squad, neither have you.”  
“They could show up,” I said, and I felt like the scared twenty one year old I had been the first time I met Mira.  
“Christine, they’re not going to,” she said, “This sector isn’t called The Zone of No Return for no reason. They’re not coming for us.”  
“There are worse people to die with,” I said, sitting down next to the spring and starting to unzip my flight suit.  
“What are you doing?” she asked.  
“If we’re going to die, I’m going to die in a hot spring,” I said, “Then I’ll be at least sort of happy.”  
I slid out of my flight suit and into the water. It was hot on my bare skin and felt good.  
“Can I join you?” Mira asked.  
“Sure,” I said.  
She slid out of her flight suit and into the water with me. I’d imagined being naked with Mira Catalina dozens of times but I hadn’t ever imagined it like this.  
“I broke up with Bruno and came out after the night we met,” I said.  
“I’m happy for you,” she said, then, “Elspeth died when one of our bases on Earth was bombed. Almost a year ago.”  
“I’m sorry,” I said.  
“It’s okay,” she said, “It’s a war. People die.”  
Looking into her eyes I could see that it wasn’t okay. It wasn’t okay at all.  
“A girl in my unit who I went out with a couple of times died a few months back,” I said, “Her and I were kind of just casually dating, but I liked her a lot.”  
“You don’t have to try to make me feel like you get it,” she said, “Because until it’s happened to you, you can’t.”  
“I was just trying to make you feel better,” I said.  
“Don’t try to get it,” she said, “I don’t want you to. You haven’t felt it, so you shouldn’t have to deal with it.”  
“Okay,” I said.  
“I’d hoped I’d get to see you again before I died,” she said, “I think about you a lot and I wanted you to know that.”  
“I think about you too,” I said, “After that night I wanted to know you better. Before the war when it looked like we were going to be allies, I couldn’t think about anything else.”  
“Well now’s our chance,” she said, and she kissed me.  
This kiss was longer and more passionate than the kiss she’d given me at the party had been.  
It was like the kind of kiss you’d give someone if you knew they were going to be the last person you’d ever kiss in your entire life, and soon you wouldn’t be able to do anything at all ever again.  
Which was the situation.  
I kissed her back and then we fucked in the spring, splashing and sliding and kissing.  
She fucked like she fought, rapid movements and sudden ideas and unexpected power. The sex was like the second kiss, desperate and passionate and final, like it was the end of the world. We didn’t stop fucking until we both fell asleep.  
“I had a crush on you after that night at the party,” she said when I woke up, “I wanted to find you after but I didn’t know how.”  
“So you’re saying we could have just run off together after the party and this whole thing wouldn’t have happened?” I asked with a laugh.  
“We would have gotten dragged back in,” she said, “We both care way too much to stay out of the war.”  
“You’re right,” I said, “I don’t know. Things would be different if we had.”  
“We would have dated and then either I would have convinced you to join Neo Zeon with me or we would have broken up because of ideological differences,” she said, “If you’d joined Neo Zeon with me, we’d still be here on XB-724 and we’d probably still be dead. And if we’d broken up because of ideological differences, we’d still be here, except we’d hate each other.”  
“Yeah,” I said, “But the something for a while would have been nice.”  
“We still have a something,” she said, “Our little something before we die is all we’ve got right now, and it’s all we’re going to get.”  
I nodded.  
“All that anyone ever has is a something, and this is ours,” she said, and then kissed me, and those words hung in the air for a long time. Those words were the difference between my little life being a waste and everything meaning something, because if I could be her something, even for a little while, my life would be a something, and I would maybe even sort of matter.  
We spent the next few days talking and laughing and kissing and fucking and falling in love and otherwise ignoring the fact that we were going to die, because everyone’s always going to die, or at least that’s what Mira said when I started crying about being afraid of dying. We shared our rations and ate at little as possible so that we could make them last and spend more time together. The rations lasted almost three weeks and then they were gone and we realized that it was the end, and we decided to spend the rest of our time in each other’s arms, when the rocks that had fallen in front of the cave entrance exploded inwards, showering us with pebbles.  
A GM was standing in the cave entrance, and its cockpit opened. Wheeler stepped out and climbed down.  
“Summers!” he said, “I didn’t find your mobile suit after the battle so I’ve been looking for you.”  
Mira and I both just kind of started at Wheeler, a look of utmost confusion on both of our faces.  
“Are you just going to gawk at me or are you going to get dressed and get in the GM so we can get out of here?” he barked.  
“Yes, sir,” I said, and got up, Mira behind me, and we put on our flight suits.  
“Who’s this girl you’ve got with you, Summers?” Wheeler asked.  
“Lieutenant Mira Catalina,” Mira said, saluting Wheeler.  
“Never heard of you,” Wheeler said, “You two can tell me the whole story after we get out of here.”  
Wheeler climbed back into the GM and picked up me and Mira with its hand and flew out of the cave.  
“We’re not going to die,” I said excitedly.  
“This is going to be a problem,” Mira said.  
“What do you mean?” I said, “It means we get more time together and we don’t have to starve to death underground and we get to grow old together and stuff like we’d talked about wanting to.”  
“Realistically, we’re both getting court martialed,” she said, “AEUG and Neo Zeon aren’t going to be very happy with us, and we’re both going to be suspected of being spies. I don’t know about your side’s methods, but Zeon doesn’t take kindly to traitors, which for not killing each other, we both are.”  
I kissed her, trying not to cry.  
Thinking about dying together in an underground cave on XB-724 had been easy. This wasn’t, because this wasn’t just dying. I loved her and this was being apart, and that was something much much much harder to deal with than dying.  
We were taken back to the AEUG and like Mira said, I was court martialed and discharged. Her military history was investigated and the AEUG quickly discovered her affiliation with Neo Zeon. I was on the shuttle with her when they sent her back to Haman Karn, trading her for a prisoner Neo Zeon had taken.  
“They’re not going to let you come with me,” she said, and I was crying.  
“It’s not fair,” I finally forced out.  
“That’s life,” she said, “And I hate it.”  
“I love you,” I said.  
“I love you too,” she said, taking hold of my hand and squeezing it.  
We were both quiet for a while.  
“I want our last kiss to be just like our first one,” she said after a while.  
I kissed her, and our last kiss was short and sweet and innocent, and we were both in tears. Out the window, the Neo Zeon spaceport was getting closer, and then we docked. She stood up and the guards handcuffed her, and in that moment she was as regal and confident and untouchable as she had been the night we met.  
“Knowing you was wonderful, Miss Christine Summers,” she said as they led her away.  
“I enjoyed knowing you, Miss Mira Catalina,” I answered.  
A few minutes later, the guards came back and the shuttle took off again, taking us back to AEUG territory.  
‘Our little something before we die is all we’ve got right now and it’s all we’re going to get,’ she’d said, back on XB-724, in the ice cave a mile beneath the surface, and she was right.  
All that anyone ever has is a something and this was ours, mine and Mira’s, and it was beautiful.


End file.
